crystal.

[byblow]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Alistair
RECIPIENT: Everybody everywhere
WHAT: Road games for everyone including those not on the road
WHEN: On the long trip from the Sunless Lands back to Kirkwall
NOTES: (1) Please threadjack and post your own would-you-rather top levels to your heart's content. (2) I think new rifters won't have their own official crystals until they get back to Kirkwall but please just have them participate over someone's shoulder or whatever else for fun.

I'm not actually walking across Ferelden again, because I'm not allowed to be in Ferelden, but if I were, you know, I think I would deserve some kind of medal. The Medal of Trudging. Awarded for walking clear across a country way too many times.

Anyway.

[ Anyway. The unspoken point is that he is bored, and it's time for a game. ]

Would you rather— [ continued in comments for organization's sake. ]

Comments

[nadasharillen]

Bears. I like soft things.

Speaking of the cold--would you rather always be dressed for winter or summer?

[somethingwild]

Interesting. And bears are very soft, indeed. Softer than people realize, I think.

I would rather always be dressed for winter. You can always shed layers when you become too warm.

Would you rather be stuck in one place for the rest of your life and never want for anything or want for many things but be able to travel?

[nadasharillen]

[you know, she’s actually been agonizing over that one recently, but ultimately decided—]

Travel. One might want for nothing in that one place, but when traveling—even wanting—you can find things you didn’t know you were missing.

Would you rather be an animal who can change into a human for a day once per moon or a human who can change into an animal for that same time?

[somethingwild]

I couldn't agree more. There's a wealth to travel you don't get to experience when you stay in one place.

[Newt hums as he considers how to answer. It's a good question.]

I think...Merlin, that's a tough question.

I think I would rather be an animal and then turn into a person.

[nadasharillen]

Follow up, then--what manner of animal?

[somethingwild]

Another good question.

[He offers a flicker of a smile before his expression twists into one of deep consideration as he muses on all of the possibilities.]

I think, if I could choose, I would want to be either a Hippogriff or a Unicorn.

Now the same question to you. If you were an animal who turned into a human during the full moon, what animal would you be?

[nadasharillen]

A Hippogriff--is that like a gryphon?

[he seems so excited about creatures that she almost wants to follow and see his face when he realizes what the Wardens have in their aviary

as far as his return question...]

A bird of prey I think. Maybe one of the sea hawks or eagles that nest in the cliffs around Kirkwall. Even if I'd have to eat only fish... well, until the full moon that is.

I like the water.

[and more particularly, the sea, the ocean. something you can't see the other side of, that's vast and elemental and so much bigger than you as to render you insignificant.]

[somethingwild]

I believe so, from what I've been told about gryphons. Hippogriffs have the head and wings of eagles and the bodies of horses. They're magnificent creatures, truly.

A sea hawk or eagle, you can't go wrong with either choice, I imagine. Flying above the sea like that, I would imagine, is quite the amazing feeling.

[nadasharillen]

[She's trying to imagine a magnificent creature with the head and wings of eagles and the bodies of horses and can't come up with anything that doesn't look patently ridiculous.]

You've seen them then?

[and apparently also gryphons. What other interesting creatures did they have?]

What about dragons? Are there those, where you come from?

[somethingwild]

Hippogriffs? Oh yes. I grew up with them, you could say. My mother bred them. Er, well. She bred fancy ones, particularly.

[Though what made the difference between "fancy" and regular Hippogriffs, he still doesn't know, even as a Magizoologist.]

Yes, we have dragons. A variety of breeds, actually. I've worked with them as well.

[nadasharillen]

["fancy ones"?

She's as confused as you are. Probably more.]

You work with dragons? [her tone is somewhere in between disbelieving and impressed] Yours must be less intractable than ours...

Or perhaps you've a skill at it previously unseen here. [Either way is equally likely.]

[somethingwild]

Well, I'm not sure how they compare, quite. I would need to study the dragons here to be able to make an apt comparison, after all.

[He certainly sounds much too eager and willing about such a prospect.]

I like to think I've honed my skills at working with dragons over the years, though.

[nadasharillen]

[she's just shaking her head over here in detached amusement. rifters are always just... something else.]

I tell you what; when you get to Kirkwall, go find Korrin Ataash and ask her about dragons. She'll bend your ear enough to make it lopsided.